Latest from EU Member States Archives - Page 2 of 70 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Luxembourg | A Good Gardener is a Teacher and Politician

September 24, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

A master gardener and co-founder of the SEED association for the preservation and use of the region’s traditional seed varieties, Frank Adams has long been involved in the legislative battle waged by seed savers to gain recognition for the necessity and specific nature of their work. Hannes Lorenzen spoke to Frank during a horticultural walk in the gardens of the Château d’Ansembourg, Luxembourg. […]

Letter from Christiansen Farm – Breeding Time

August 26, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Time waits for nobody – but it seems to travel quickly or slowly depending on circumstance. Organic breeding techniques have a different relationship to time and place than genetic engineering methods; other aspects of being in a market economy and of using specialised machinery have their own relationships to time too. Here, Hannes Lorenzen talks with organic plant breeders in Christiansen organic farm, up in Schleswig-Holstein, in the far north of Germany and what they do and why they do it. […]

Letter from the Farm | Wild Geese and Tamed Farming – is it All for the Birds?

August 23, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Is farming for the birds? Like mountain farmers, some lowland farmers have trouble keeping economically afloat due to growing production costs, difficult market access, and the impact of climate change. Jan Gonne Thams is one of them. He lives on Pellworm island, in a remote and disadvantaged region of North Friesland, Germany. There, the increasing numbers of protected wild Geese which arrive on Pellworm island have changed priorities of the young farmer. Now the farm shop is first and farming is secondary. In conversation with Hannes Lorenzen. […]

25 years of LEADER – What impacts?

July 17, 2024 Robert Lukesch

The Austrian Local Action Group (LAG) Styrian Volcanic Land (Steirisches Vulkanland) wanted to know the impacts of its local development efforts over the last quarter-century. To find out, they entrusted a team from ÖAR consultancy, assisted by students from the University of Vienna, to conduct an impact study.* Here co-author Robert Lukesch gives an insight into the background, process and findings of this pioneering research. […]

Letter From A Future Farmer | Rethinking The Farm From The Ground Up

July 12, 2024 Matthew Hayes

For Matthew Hayes, a flying visit to Groundswell 2024, the UK annual festival for regenerative agriculture, provides a brief period off the farm in mid-season, and a moment for reflection. There he visits his son Kristof, who is forging his own path in the regen ag space. It’s a solid grounding in shared values that led this farmer’s son to give agriculture another go – on his own terms. A father and son letter by Kristof and Matthew Hayes […]

Marburg Food Dialogue – Putting more regional produce on the menu

July 8, 2024 ARC

How can restaurants serve more regional produce? A networking event at the Creativity and Social Innovation Hub Marburg (CIM) brought together local restaurant operators, suppliers, civil society actors and employees of the city and district to discuss this question. […]

Germany | A Modern Subsistence Farm in a Postcard Landscape

July 5, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Cycling through this beauty of soft hills, yellow-green meadows, scattered forests, small lakes, finely carpentered wooden houses, small villages with cows and horses grazing side by side, onion-crowned church-towers and cosy guest houses, you may believe that Upper Bavaria is one of those remaining paradise places where rural culture and small peasantry has survived. Letter from die Ötz farm by Hannes Lorenzen. […]

True Bread – the Restorative work of Farmers, Millers & Bakers in Hungary

July 4, 2024 ARC

The Hungarian Environmental Social Science Research Group (ESSRG) reports on the renewed interest – and importance – of short and local distribution channels, which are better able to meet the growing demand for alternative grains in Europe. And introducing True Bread, produced by ESSRG, a beautiful documentary to tell the story of small-scale farmers, millers, and bakers in Hungary gathering to restore coherent collaboration. […]

Greece | The Sisters of the Seeds

June 14, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Welcome to the gardens of St John’s monastery in the village of Anatoli, Thessaly, Greece. We bring you a heartwarming story of sharing and sufficiency, in a letter from a visit to the farm by Hannes Lorenzen. […]

Impact and Opportunities of the 2023-27 CAP Reform in Denmark

June 12, 2024 ARC

In the report that accompanies this article, CONCITO analyses the implementation of the 2023-27 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform after its first year of implementation, using Denmark as a case study. The focus lies on examining the new components of the reform, namely the New Delivery Model (NDM), the enhanced conditionality, and the eco-schemes, and their contribution towards both the European Union (EU) and national objectives concerning climate, biodiversity, and the environment. Recommendations are also made for improved delivery. […]

The German Farmers’ Association’s Double Game – Shrewd farmer lobbyists

June 10, 2024 ARC

The German Farmers’ Association (Deutscher Bauernverband) promises nature conservation, but acts against it. Jost Maurin (Die Tageszeitung, taz) makes the case that this trajectory could serve as a warning for the EU Strategic Dialogue, in which environmental and farmers’ associations are to develop a vision for the future of agriculture. […]

Letter From The Farm | Strong Roots for a Surer Future

May 17, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Investing in a small family farm is much more than an economic consideration: it can help to revitalise an entire village. In the Greek village of Trikorfo (Τρίκορφο), father and son Vasilis and Lukas Mylonas are two generations of olive farmers who are honouring their roots while looking to the future for their community. Hannes Lorenzen reports from his visit to the farm in May. […]

The Case for a Land Observatory in Ireland

May 1, 2024 Daniel Long

Quite quickly, Ireland has seen the kind of land concentration more familiar in other parts of Europe. Various pressures are coming to bare on access to land, including the desires of the very wealthy to build up an asset bank. Daniel Long is a young dairy farmer from south Tipperary, which has seen hugely inflated prices paid by billionaires for land. What impact does this have, including on how young people and their future in farming? Long also outlines the beginnings of a campaign to draw attention to this issue, while making the case for a Land Observatory in Ireland. […]

Letter From The Farm | Rural Digitalisation Remains a Hard Sell

April 19, 2024 Matteo Metta

We’re back on Cortijo El Manzano in Campotéjar, Spain, with a third and final letter from rural Andalusia. Though committed, this agroecological farm, under pressure from all sides, has little bandwidth to invest in digital tools. Reflections by Matteo Metta. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2024 – A Food Revolution Starts With Seed!

April 16, 2024 Adèle Pautrat

Our Seeds4All project was back in Ireland in March to be part of Feeding Ourselves 2024. We are inheritors of a genetic commons that we have to protect. While working on the ground we need to be vigilant about what is happening at legal level – and work together. In partnership with the Irish Seed Savers Association, Seeds4All brought a European perspective to Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary. Adèle Pautrat reports. […]